Publications
Partners
Cape Town - After months of sporadic shooting and gang violence, Bonteheuwel residents will gather on Freedom Square in the heart of the Cape Flats for a meeting with authorities on Saturday on how to stop the bullets and bloodshed.
Police, Metro Police, Law Enforcement, the Department of Correctional Services and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are expected to attend the public gathering planned for Saturday afternoon at 15:00, said Joint Peace Forum chairperson Judy Kennedy.
She told News24 that while gang tensions were not nearly as bad as the mayhem which swept through the area last year, the discussion aimed to ensure that those levels of violence were never experienced again.
“The purpose of the meeting is to find out if there is a plan and what it entails. We don’t want to hear the same song we always sung when these questions are asked. We want solutions where we can actually see results,” she insisted.
Kennedy said while the forum was mandated to seek solutions for the gang and crime plague in Bonteheuwel, Saturday's meeting aimed to find results to these problems for communities across the Cape Flats.
“Our reality is people are dying. The need for sustainable solutions and increased police resources should be prioritised.
“We aren’t interested in party politics or politicians who want to use this as a stage for their campaigns. We want to talk about how we can help find answers to issues we are faced with daily. And we need it now.”
Meanwhile, Operation Fiela swooped on Bonteheuwel and Bishop Lavis on Friday morning, which resulted in the seizure of ammunition and drugs.
Provincial police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk said SAPS, Metro Police and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) saturated the area in the early hours of Friday morning and arrested 21 suspects in the gang strongholds.
